Animism

The ultimate source of the term animism is the Latin word, anima, meaning spirit, soul, or life force. In contemporary anthropology, animism is the generic term for numerous and diverse religions focused on the belief that nature includes spirits, sacred forces, and similar extraordinary phenomena. This is reflected in the classic minimal definition of religion, a belief in spiritual beings, that was originally formulated by the famous British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in his 1871 book Primitive Cultures. Tylor viewed animism as the basis of all religions and the earliest stage in the evolution of religion. Animism remains relevant to considerations regarding such elemental conceptual dualities as animal and human, nature and culture, natural and supernatural, inanimate and animate, body and mind, and life and death.

In general, animists believe that supernatural forces inhabit animals, plants, rocks, and other objects in nature. These forces are envisioned as spirits or souls. While they may or may not be personified, often they are categorized as male or female. They can influence human affairs for better or worse. In turn, humans may influence them to some degree through appropriate rituals and offerings, especially by ritual specialists such as shamans and priests.

Given its spatial and temporal extent, animism qualifies as the great, major, or world religion, as opposed to Buddhism, Christianity,Hinduism, Islam, or Judaism, even though it is often omitted from books on comparative religion. The antiquity of animism appears to extend back to the time of the Neandertals some 70,000 years ago. At a cave called Shanidar in northern Iraq, archaeologists found some of the earliest evidence of intentional burials, together with offerings such as red ocher and even flowers, the latter revealed by pollen remains. In sharp contrast, other religions are relatively recent, having developed within just the last few thousand years.

Geographically, animism is the most widespread of all religions. It was the religion of the hunter-gatherers, who inhabited most of the terrestrial surface of this planet until the advent of farming, around10,000 years ago. To this day, animism persists as the only religion in many foraging, farming, and pastoral cultures. Furthermore, it also forms a substratum of popular religion in many other societies, even though they identify with one or more of the so-called great religions. For example, Asians often embrace elements of animism in their personal religion, along with mainstream religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam. Thus, in Japan, Shintoism and Buddhism coexist and often commingle, and the former is a variety of animism. Neo-paganism in contemporary Europe, North America, and elsewhere is also a variant of animism. Some form of animism is still found in about half of the nearly7,000 cultures in the world today.

Animism permeates much of human life and nature. As an illustration, rice is one of the most important food and cash crops in the world. However, in its Asian homelands, rice is not merely a material entity for nourishment, and it cannot be adequately understood only as such. In addition, it is associated with the spiritual dimension of life, and in particular, the so-called rice goddess, along with an elaborate complex of ritualistic, symbolic, and artistic expressions.

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